Broadened Horizons
by BoneyM
Summary: After their daughter opens their eyes to their prejudices, a married couple is able to admit to themselves and each other what those prejudices were concealing. This is the story of where that admission starts to take them.


In a private booth in a candle-lit corner of a midscale restaurant, hushed voices - even more hushed than required for privacy - were barely audible over the soft music playing over the speakers. "We just got to talking one night after a couple of glasses of wine about recent events and, well, turns out we both share an interest. In, uh, foxes. Male foxes. In the sexual sense. We'd heard about this timbr thing so we put an ad on it and, well, you know the rest." Bonnie patted her husband Stu's hand, who had been silent so far, a look of discomfort warring with a blush across his face as he alternated between looking away and stealing glances at their dinner date.

Their dinner date was Russel, a red fox in his thirties, casually dressed in a flannel button-down and jeans - maybe too casual for a restaurant date in the big city, but out here it was perfectly acceptable, and that he'd hung his hat on the back of his chair instead of continuing to wear it was a level of good manners above and beyond the call of duty. To avoid startling his dates, he'd avoided the bugs and fish on the menu, and was chowing down into a plate of baked artichokes, while his dates shared a plate of pasta - it was probably too early for them all to split a plate three ways. He ate the last bite off his fork, getting a kick out of the way the two of them eyed his fangs with mixed nervousness and curiousity, and spoke up in reply. "Sure warms my heart to see a long-time married couple that are able to communicate so honestly with each other, and not just because I might just be the subject of that communication."

Bonnie blushed prettily at that, and her and Stu shared a fond look with each other. Bonnie turned her attention back to their date. "Well, we're certainly not perfect, lord knows we've made mistakes. But we always promised to be honest with each other, even when we lie to ourselves."

"Definitely an attitude to admire." Russel and Bonnie smiled at each other and there was an almost-comfortable silence for a moment as Stu took another gulp of his wine. A moment later, Bonnie excused herself to go powder her nose.

Without his wife's presence at the table to fill the silence, Stu found his gaze drawn to Russel, who was looking at him thoughtfully. A moment later, Russel gave voices to his thoughts. "Between you and me, are you into this, or are you just going along with it for the wife's sake? Just say the word and I'll make my excuses and clear out-"

Stu raised a hand and interrupted him. "Look, I'm not NOT into it, it's just... this is a part of myself I'm not that comfortable with, you know?"

Russel reached across the table and patted Stu's hand, who started at the contact, but didn't remove his hand. "I understand. We can take this as slow as you need to. You're a handsome rabbit, well worth the time to get to know." Stu blushed at the praise and sat almost petrified, his eyes locked to Russels', not knowing how to react to the praise. Except for the most beautiful of them, straight and closeted men, Russel knew, rarely knew how to deal with genuine admiration for their physical appearance - even within a marriage, it was usually the wife that was the object of desire, and it was the man's role to supply that desire.

The moment lingered until Bonnie reappeared, took in the scene at a look, and slipped back down into her chair. "Glad to see you boys getting along!"

* * *

They made small talk throughout dessert, chewing over local events, gossip, and, never far from the thoughts of folks in farming country, the weather. Stu opened up a little more as the dinner progressed, emboldened by the private word with Russel and the wine that continued flowing. He and Russel found common ground in a shared enmity for the local village's home-owners association, while Russel and Bonnie had bonded over the local football team, both in their current run of success and in the attractiveness of the fullback. By the time the plates were cleared away and they were left with their drinks and after-dinner mints, they were chatting like old friends.

Bonnie dug around in her purse, pulled out her phone, and reluctantly hit the on switch and sighed when she saw the time. "We probably should be heading off soon. I'm having a lovely time, and I'm pretty sure Stu is too-," Stu gave a heartfelt smile and nodded, "-but we've got so many kids that it's hard to find someone who can manage them all, and we weren't able to hire someone on short notice. God knows what sort of state we'll find the place in when we get home as it is..."

Russel smiled and nodded, holding his hands up reassuringly. "I understand completely. I've had a lovely night, though I'm sad to see the end of it, and I hope we can do it again soon." The three of them finished their drinks and stood to say their goodbyes - causing Bonnie and Stu a moment of sudden excited fear as they were reminded how much bigger Russel was than they - and Russel gave Bonnie a kiss on the cheek, extracting a tipsy giggle from her, then used Stu's extended hand to pull him in for a kiss on the cheek of his own, causing him to blush and Bonnie's giggle to return. He collected his hat from where he'd hung it, left a couple of notes for the bill (ignoring Bonnie and Stu's requests not to) and left with a fond backwards glance.

The two of them decided that they'd had just a little too much to drink to drive home, so they decided to make the short walk home - the moon was bright and they were intimately familiar with the area. After they had left the lights of the restaurant and been swallowed by the night, lit only by the moon and the stars and linked arm in arm, they started giving voice to their thoughts. "That went well, I thought. Such a charmer!"

Stu nodded, smiling to himself. "He really was. It was very different to what I expected," and Stu grimaced slightly, thinking of the various stereotypes he had expected and even a guilty fear-slash-fantasy that it was all a trick that would deliver him into the clutches of a rapacious thug of a fox that would ravage his body without mercy. "He made it seem so... normal. Like it wasn't just a timbr hookup. And I wouldn't have looked twice at him if I passed him in the street! Well," he blushed as he forced himself to be honest, "not for reasons of judging him, anyway."

"He is fairly handsome, isn't he? Lanky, though he makes it work for him, in that foxy kind of way. So shall we be giving him another date, then?"

"I'd like that. And, ah, on a night when we could get a babysitter, I think."

"Oh? Do you want to see where a full evening could take us?" Bonnie reached her free hand over to Stu, and it roamed down his body until it found what it was looking for. "Oh, I think this knows where you hope that evening would take us, doesn't it?"

* * *

By the time they got home, it was well past bedtime for most of the kids, who had to be corralled out of where they were scattered through the burrow. When one asked why mummy and daddy had grass-stains all over them, the question was raised in return as to where all the icecreams had gone when they were only supposed to have one each, and it was mutually agreed that everyone would mind their business regarding what had gone on that evening.


End file.
